Serve up your July 4th guests in style with a custom DIY red, white, and blue serving tray! Or use it in your patriotic decor. It would look great sitting up on a mantel or resting on an ottoman.

This tray is easier to create than you might think and only requires a handful of supplies.

You will need a sturdy serving tray, this one is a bamboo tray you can find at Old Time Pottery, and some flat glass beads, also from Old Time Pottery. You will need 2 bags of red, one bag of blue, and 1 large bag of the mixed white/clear beads.

You will also need some epoxy resin, found at your local home improvement store.

Lay out the pattern you wish to use inside the tray. For my modified flag pattern, I used the pearlescent white beads as my “stars” and the clear beads as my white stripes. The bag of mixed white beads also contains some pretty frosted beads, but they are smaller than the others and may mess up the balance of your pattern. I am going to save those for vase fillers.

Space your beads as needed to fill the entire tray.

Mix epoxy resin according to box directions. If you follow the directions to a T then the resin should turn out perfectly clear when it dries.

Fill the tray enough to just cover the beads so you create a smooth flat surface.

NOTE: I placed the tray on an old vinyl tablecloth before pouring the resin in case it leaked through the tray. It did indeed leak a small amount. I left it on the tablecloth through the entire drying time. It then peeled right up from the tablecloth, leaked edges and all leaving the tablecloth in one piece. I used an utility knife to scrape the excess resin from the outside edges of the tray.

Once the resin is 100% cured then feel free to use it how you wish. This is going to be a great addition to my patriotic decor!

Michele is a wife and mommy to two little boys. She recently gave up her job in the field of science to pursue her dream of spending more time with her boys and becoming a full time blogger. When she’s not playing superheroes or building Lego mansions you can find her creating at The Scrap Shoppe. She doesn’t shy away from any type of media so you never know what sort of project will show up on her blog next!

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The Scrap Shoppe

Michele is the creator behind The Scrap Shoppe, a craft and DIY blog. She is a wife and mommy to 2 fun little boys. She gave up a job in science to pursue her dream of spending more time with her boys and becoming a full time blogger. The Scrap Shoppe focuses on creating fun, creative, and unique craft and DIY projects for the home that anyone can recreate.